give me a second, I need to get my story straight
by grim grace
Summary: Peter/Gwen AU. The spider sinks it's teeth in and Peter Parker's life changes forever. But what if it didn't.


**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything that you recognise, even though I would like to tell you that I took an online quiz and I'm apparently Peter Parker, when it comes to my superhero secret identity. Even though that doesn't have much to do with rights et such, I thought it was awesome, and I should tell you that because of it, I at least have my pride. (Plez don't sue me).

**Nb. **I just finished my latest _The Vampire Diaries_ fic, and I was stalking the 'Stonefield' tag on tumblr and I decided that I was feeling the Peter/Stacy love. And I then decided to write what is definitely the most angsty thing I've ever written.

**:**

**Give me a second chance****  
I need to get my story straight****  
My friends are in the bathroom****  
Getting higher than the Empire State**

**My lover she is waiting for me****  
Just across the bar****  
My seats been taken by some sunglasses****  
Asking 'bout a scar****  
**

**:**

After sneaking upstairs and losing the party of interns (which, of course, Gwen was in charge of), Peter sneaks down the hall and tries not to look too suspicious. He follows the man he ran into—the one holding the file with the same symbol as his father's—to a door around the corner.

But the man apparently knows his stuff, and hides the key pad with his body before he touches it. Groaning quietly, Peter rolls his eyes and turns back.

Gwen notes that he snuck off and faces him with a scowl. All he can muster is a shameful smile and when she orders him away he can't think of any reason why she's not right.

He rubs the back of his neck, shoots her a final apologetic look and backs off.

When he leaves, he feels disappointed, kind of sick and really annoyed. The frustration of still not having answers doesn't help either.

.

When he gets home he sits down to a family dinner with Uncle Ben and Aunt May, and they talk to him about what colleges he might want to apply to. He's pretty interested in NYU, just because he's happy to stay in the city and he knows that Uncle Ben depends on his help these days—even though he'd never admit it. But he's also interested in the science course they're offering at UCLA, and he talks to them about it so they know that he's got a lot of places that interest him.

Auntie May suggests Yale. ("They'd be lucky to have you, Peter, and it's where your mother went.") Uncle Ben is partial to Berkley because that's where he went, before Peter's father followed in quick but sure footsteps.

But Peter isn't sure about those. Sure, they're fantastic schools and he'll probably apply to them regardless, but does he really want to go to a college where all they'll be expecting is for him to live up to his father's name?

(What's his father done for him lately?)

The question that occurs to him in that moment hits him like a guilty kick punch to the ribs and he quietens down a bit ,paying more attention to the meatloaf that Auntie May has put on the plate. If his guardians notice the change in his demeanour, they don't let in—but they do tactfully change the subject and start discussing how they're going to fix the leak in the basement.

That night, Peter pulls on his dad's old glasses like it's an apology and sits down to edit some of his photos. Maybe he could do something with that, he thinks. Even if he goes to a science high school, he's always had a knack for photography and surely his teacher, Mr. Phelps, would know how a talent like that could get him somewhere?

He finishes with the pictures for the yearbook, adjusting the brightness and the contrast as required and getting rid of any red eyes or the flash of light on a couple of kid's foreheads—and jumps on facebook. He doesn't have many friends (lol, virtually and in reality), but those that he does know are complaining about each of their lives and it's nice to be reminded that Peter's not the only kid in the world with problems.

But facebook has never really been his thing so he logs off pretty quickly and falls into bed. (After a few push ups and a couple sit ups to make sure that he at least looks like he's staying in shape—the skateboarding did wonders for his leg muscles and his abs, but his arms were probably the least impressive things in all of New York).

He lies back on his pillow, tucks his hands under his head and tries not to think about whether or not there's a step he can take from now. He could go and talk to that Dr. Connors guy that his dad had worked with, but that would mean sneaking back into the Oscorp building and he really doesn't want to get any more on Gwen's bad side (or hauled out by security).

He switches on his television for a bit, watches a couple of episodes of some old sitcom thats on reruns before rolling over and falling asleep. When sleep does come, he welcomes it with open arms and dreams of a girl with green eyes.

.

He finds Gwen at school pretty quickly. He avoids the basketball court as a general rule, but Flash still manages to hit him with one of the balls in the back of the head before lunch break. He takes it in his stride and continues looking through the halls for her tell tale blonde pony tail.

He catches up to her with ease—he's pretty adept at dodging people in the halls and his long legs help him to move pretty quickly. His board's been confiscated when he was caught riding it this morning, but he's still able to move pretty swiftly.

He hesitates behind her for a moment, his hand already half outstretched as he tries to decide whether or not it's actually smart to talk to her again. Maybe she's not interested in a guy she's talked to about three times in the years that they've attended this school—especially not when those few conversations had been talking about how he'd been beat up by another guy, and her kicking him out of her place of work.

But, as fate would have it, she turns at that point—saying goodbye to her friend and almost walking right into him.

"Peter!" She says, obviously surprised by his sudden appearance behind her.

Peter quickly pulls his hand back and runs it through his hair. He chuckles a bit nervously and looks at his feet. God, what was it about this girl that made him act so incredibly awkward?

"Hey—uhm—uh, hey. Sorry."

The corner of Gwen's lip tilts up and Peter blushes slightly. Well, at least she appears to be amused by him and not just annoyed that he's decided to come talk to her.

"Your Peter Parker today, then?" she says casually, the small smile breaking out onto her face as she _glows _up at him. The smile hits him straight in the heart and Peter struggles not to blush some more.

He doesn't quite manage it, but hopefully it looks like he's blushing because of her comment rather than any effect that her smile might have on him. Well, he's also blushing because of the comment.

"Ah," he says (and yes, it's awkwardly). "Yeah—me again."

She quirks a brow at him and he smiles again, unable to keep any control over his facial muscles when she's shooting that wry smirk in his direction.

"You know," she says casually, "if you want to join the interns program then I can probably talk to some people, see if there's any more spots."

Peter grins. He doesn't have much of an interest in Oscorp, outside of the fact that it's one of the most prestigious science buildings in the city and he attends a high school that specialises in science—but this is Gwen and she's offering to help him out and inadvertently inviting him to spend more time with him. He's not going to pass that up.

"Yeah that would be great." He says, managing to get a full sentence out without stumbling. "You—uh—I mean—" (damn, and he was doing so well), "—thanks."

God, why?

But she still doesn't seem to want to run for the hills which should be a good sign, right? It's an awkward place for conversation, like all halls are, and even though he wants to just pull her down to sit with him now and talk with him so that he can actually learn everything there is to learn—now is not the time.

Also, he gets the feeling it might be a little forward of him, seeing as—like he'd thought earlier—they'd only really talked a few times before this.

"Sorry about yesterday," he blurts out as his brain loses control and his voice takes the reins. "I didn't mean to—I was just—I wanted to look around and I didn't even notice that you'd gone and—"

Well that's a pack of lies, he thinks. But what is he going to tell her? That he came in order to snoop around the office in search of research that could pertain somewhat to his father's research from fifteen years ago. It was a stupid idea, now that he thinks of it. Any research from fifteen years ago would be fine—figured out by like minded scientists. His father's colleagues.

Gwen shakes her head. "Don't worry about it," she says quickly. "I'm sorry for being so rude. I didn't mean to get angry."

Peter holds up his hands. "Oh no, you had every right—"

"I just didn't want to get in trouble, so—"

"—it was my fault."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry."

After their perfectly timed apology to each other, there is an awkward pause (yeah, another one) and Peter cringes at his own actions. Smooth, Parker, he congratulates himself. Way to impress her by coming across strong and confident.

Gwen lets out a little laugh, and Peter is happy to join in. At least that's something he can do. He's always been quite gifted with the self-deprecating laughter.

"Sorry," he says again.

Gwen sighs. "Stop saying that." She tells him pretty quickly. "We're fine."

The bell rings and the corridor begins to empty immediately. Gwen looks around and smiles one last time at him. "I need to get to class," she says. "I'll see you around, Peter."

She reaches out and grabs his arm as she passes him, squeezing his bicep a little in what is probably some sort of friendly gesture but actually sends Peter's pulse racing. (Damn, he thinks. He should have done more push ups).

.

He heads to the skatepark once school is finished—he's successfully avoided any more potentially violent or humiliating situations by staying out of Flash's way, and not following Gwen around like a lost puppy—and he's pretty keen to end this day (which has been good so far—hello? She _touched _him) on a positive note.

It works in his favour, even though he doesn't initially see it that way.

He's skating down the road, usually empty at this time of day when a speeding car roars out with no warning. Peter manages to stay out of it's way pretty easily, but the sudden stop sends his soaring and he lands on the pavement with a groan.

He's too busy trying to get his lungs to start working properly to notice that the car stops immediately and the front door opens.

"Holy crap, are you okay?"

Peter groans something inaudible, which apparently isn't the answer the driver was looking for.

"Shit," the voice says—and it's a guy, probably his age if Peter had to guess, and he appears to be freaking out. Which doesn't make much sense because Peter's the one who's just sailed about ten feet through the air. "Shit, shit—fuck."

His reaction to the situation would have been funny if Peter wasn't lying on the sidewalk. Instead, it's just kind of annoying and Peter pushes himself up, hastening to reassure the guy that he's alright. When he gets a good look, he realises belatedly that the guy goes to his school, and it suddenly became a whole lot easier.

"Sorry," Peter says (and Gwen's right, he really needs to stop apologising), as he reaches a hand out towards the guy (or, really, to point at the guy because he's still sitting down and his ribs are aching and he's not super keen on standing at the moment). "Harry, is it?"

The guy, who has only really just caught on that Peter is alive and unhurt (hopefully), frowns.

"How do you know my name?" he asks.

Peter, who's always been more of an observer than anything, is used to not being really well known around the school, so he doesn't mind that this guy isn't any different. But he settles for a simple answer. "We go to the same school," he says grimly, checking his arms and knees and, damnit, he's ruined his last pair of good jeans. "You're in my calc class."

Even though, like he'd said, Peter didn't really mind, he still smiles a bit at Harry's responding look of shame.

"Sorry man," Harry says. "I didn't recognise you."

It was clear to Peter that he still didn't, but again, it wasn't really much of a problem. What is a problem, however, is that Peter realises what's happened to his board. While he'd been preoccupied with landing shoulder first on the hard concrete, his board had continued on its intended path and fallen victim to the expensive tires of Harry's car.

Harry follows Peter's gaze and flinches when he sees the three separate pieces that remain of the skateboard.

"Damn," Harry grimaces. "I'll buy you a new one."

Now feeling up to standing, Peter brushes delicately at his knees before he pushes himself to his feet. "Don't worry about it," he says. "It was my bad."

Harry shakes his head. "No it wasn't. I wasn't looking where I was going—I was arguing with my dad and—you don't want to hear this." He takes a deep breath. "I'll buy you a new one." He repeats, not leaving room for an argument. He gives Peter a once over. "Do you need a ride?"

Without his board it's a long walk, and while Peter can probably manage it, he's also forgot to mention that Harry's not just driving any car. It's an Audi R8 and it can't be more than a year old and Peter, a photographer, has an appreciation of aesthetically pleasing inanimate objects.

So he nods gruffly. "Yeah that would be cool."

.

They don't go straight to Peter's house, mostly because Harry's still not happy that he's done enough to help Peter, even though the fall was Peter's fault. Peter has to talk him out of taking him to a hospital, and is too exhausted to really complain about heading to the nearest MacDonald's, because he's honestly kind of hungry.

They end up talking about which classes they have together and the assignments that they've both got coming up, and they realise that they've also got a shared appreciation for skateboarding. It's a surprise, mostly because Peter's got a few acquaintances but no one who really talks to him outside of school, and it's nice to find that he doesn't mind this socialising thing.

It's late when they finish eating—sitting in the booth and chatting about all sorts of things—and Harry ushers him to the car making sure that Peter doesn't hurt himself (which, yeah, is a little emasculating, but Peter's trying not to think about it).

"You live here?" Harry's voice sounds surprised when they pull up outside Peter's house. His tone is sceptical and Peter's about to turn to him and ask exactly what the hell his problem is with him living here when he notices that Harry's not looking at his house—he's looking at the one next to it.

"You know MJ?" he doesn't have to guess.

Harry, again, looks surprised, but then nods. "Through some friends," he admits. "I gave her a lift home once. You neighbours?"

Peter gives him a look that clearly reads: 'didn't we just establish that she lives in the house right next to his?' Harry flushes.

He's not given time to really respond though because the screen door opens and Uncle Ben is walking out. A quick look at his watch tells him that yeah, it really is late, and he's probably worried his uncle by not answering his phone—and unfortunate victim of the fall that he's already convinced Harry not to pay to replace.

But if anything, Ben is a polite man and when he sees that Peter's got company he smiles. "Peter?" He asks, as though his name with convey all of the questions he wants to ask.

Funnily enough, it works.

"Uncle Ben this is Harry Osborne." He says, gesturing to Harry on the other side of the car. He doesn't mention the fall and Harry seems smart enough to know by now that it wasn't seriously enough to warrant any kind of worry in his family.

Ben juts a hand out and smiles brightly, chatting for a minute before inviting Harry inside.

Peter's ready for the quickly dismissal, and again surprised when Harry smiles and agrees, looking at Ben like something amazing has just happened. ("You have family dinners?" He asks, as he follows Peter and Ben inside. "Like, every night?")

Aunt May seems equally as surprised to see that Peter has company and is quickly to shell out all the stops. They're having lasagne for dinner, but now that they've got guests, May ushers the boys upstairs, already keen to go and chance the sauces and fix the table for a fourth member.

When they get to Peter's room, the first thing Harry notices is the picture of Gwen Stacy on his desktop.

Peter blushes furiously as Harry looks at him. "You're dating Gwen?"

Peter hastily tries to explain that the desktop was a mistake and he'd accidentally changed the settings yesterday and fallen asleep before he could fix them but Harry laughs him off. "Pining, then?" he jokes. "Every mans weakness, Parker—don't worry about it."

Peter is silent for a second before he smiles. If this is what it's like to have a friend who comes over to hang out, he finds he doesn't mind it at all. Not that he's going to get all pathetic and 'be my best friend'ey after knowing the guy for a couple of hours.

It's just, you know. Company.

Dinner is nice and Harry is enthusiastic when it comes to dinner conversation. He looks pleasantly surprised when Aunt May asks how he's going at school and which classes he and Peter share. They do a good job of fabricating a lie on the spot when they ask how they know each other, and Harry laughs at Uncle Ben's jokes (which takes effort, believe you me). When dinner is finished, Aunt May doesn't let Peter get away with not seeing Harry to the door and when he does, he manages to apologise again.

"Sorry about that." He says with a frown. "They're not used to company."

Harry looks at him funny for a moment, before laughing and slapping a solid hand on his back. "You're alright Parker," he declares loudly. "And tell your Aunt that was the greatest lasagne I've ever had." (Really? _Really?_)

He smiles brightly again before jumping down the steps and moving back to his car. Not wanting to seem weird, Peter closes the door before he drives away, but he watches as the headlights leave through the hazy glass of the front door and wonders what's going to happen tomorrow.

.

In the morning, Peter realises that his fall had obviously injured his face in some way, because he's got a pretty nasty black bruise just below his cheek. When Aunt May asks for it, he shrugs it off as a skating accident.

.

Even though Peter didn't think it was remotely possible to procure skateboards that quickly, Harry finds him early in the morning and presents him with a new board. Peter complains for about five minutes before the bell rings and Harry's shoved it in his hands and vanished before he can protest further. Grumbling, Peter shoves the board in his locker and heads to his English class.

He takes his normal seat behind Gwen, after a hasty apology for being late, and busies himself for a minute writing notes from the blackboard. Mrs. Donahue assigns them partner work for the day, which makes Peter groan because he's always that kid that holds up his hand without a person to work with.

He's suitably surprised, (shocked, awed, excited) when Gwen turns in her seat immediately and smiles at him.

"Why is Harry Osborne buying you gifts?" she asks with that sly smile of hers.

Good lord, news travels fast in this school.

"Did you know Stacy?" Flash yells across to them. "They're in love. He's wooing him."

Gwen shoots him a look. "Talk to me when you can _spell_ wooing, Flash." She tells him tightly, before rolling her eyes. She looks straight back to Peter, who'd watched the whole exchange with wide eyes, and looks at him expectantly. "Well?"

Peter, as he often is, stammers for a moment, not quite able to decide on which word he wants to use. Thankfully, Flash looks suitably chastised by Gwen's comment and has gone back to his own work. In the end, Peter just kind of shrugs. "There was a bit of an accident yesterday." He explains weirdly. "His car ran over my skateboard."

Gwen nods slowly. "And that's why you looked like you attacked a door knob with your face?" She checks.

Peter nods again. The words she used made him smile which helps a bit with the whole 'trying to communicate' thing that he apparently has yet to master.

"If that's what I look like." He says, frowning. He hadn't thought the bruise looked _that _bad.

"Oh please," Gwen admonishes. "With that shiner? The abuse rumours have been flying. Sadie Maitland's been telling everyone you robbed a bank."

He's a little impressed by that one, to be honest and he cracks a smile.

.

That night, Peter gets home early. He went to the skate park with Harry—who'd brought along his own skateboard to show off his own skills—and he'd managed to make Gwen laugh a couple of times in their English class, which had made him feel pretty much invincible for the majority of the day. Harry had laughed off the gay rumours when he'd heard them—running his hand through Peter's scruffy hair and knocking his head away from him.

"Sorry, Parker," he laughs airily. "But you're not my type."

When Harry drops him off at him, MJ is out the front, putting out the garbage. She waves fondly to Peter when she sees him, and she probably can't see through the tinted glass to catch Harry's face—but he's watching her fondly and Peter thinks that his type is probably red head and gorgeous.

When he gets inside, Uncle Ben and Aunt May are sitting on the couch playing scrabble, arguing over the validity of the word 'Oscar' (May thinks it's a name, but Ben insists that it counts if you think of it as the award).

The next morning they hear about a robbery at a nearby seven eleven and Ben shakes his head and sighs.

"The people of this neighbourhood need to learn," he says, "if I'd have been there—I would have done something."

Peter doesn't doubt it.

.

A couple of days later, Gwen invites him to dinner at her house. He agrees (probably too enthusiastically to be totally cool) and then attempts to google the dish that Gwen mentioned but falls down on spelling and doesn't find anything that can help him. It isn't until he's in the elevator of the apartment complex that Peter thinks maybe Harry would know.

"Hey, do you know what fishconi is?" he asks.

Harry snorts into the phone (it's a new one, but not bought with money from the Osborne trust fund, so Peter's proud to call this replacement his own). "You mean brisconi?" he checks. "What the hell are you eating that shit for?"

Which doesn't sound promising. Peter grimaces at the response and at the realisation that he now has to explain to Harry that he's going for dinner at the Stacy house, which gets him the expected response.

"That's my boy, Parker!"

Can they be counted as 'boys' if they've only been friends for a couple of weeks? It's probably worth the odd nickname though, because he's had someone to talk to at lunch breaks these days. (He usually eats outside, sitting on the railing of the English block, near enough to Gwen and her friends that he can see them, but usually alone. Harry explained that after a couple of days of looking for him in the cafeteria, he ventured outside to find him—and when he did, he was happy to join Peter with his tray on his lap).

The elevator pings and Peter hastily says goodbye to Harry. He catches a shout of "Good luck!" just as he takes the phone from his ear and hangs up. After a couple of minutes scanning the doors to find the right one, he knocks solidly and tries to look confident when the door opens.

Not much of a problem because he towers over the young boy who opens the door. For a second, Peter assumes he's got the wrong house and he's about a breath away from stammering an awkward apology when the kid turns his head and shout out.

"Gwen, your boyfriends here!"

Which, of course, doesn't do much for the confidence facade because he can literally feel his cheeks heating up as the traitorous blush arrives.

To his relief though, when Gwen does appear (looking as fabulous as she always does), she's blushing as well. She batts the boy (probably her brother, Peter thinks as common sense begins to kick in), away and ushers Peter inside, taking his hand as if it's a casual thing to do.

Peter almost jumps from the touch but manages to keep his cool, and keep the ecstatic excitement rising within him from appearing on his face. (Well, hopefully).

Gwen hurries him to her room, rushing him in before any parents jump out at him which strikes Peter as a little odd because if this were his house, Aunt May would have been on Gwen before she could blink.

Gwen seems to catch his surprise and hastens to explain. "Dad's not home yet." She says with a smile. "And my mum's in the kitchen with the fish. You know."

She looks at him like he has some clue what she's saying but she smiles brightly when she realises he doesn't, like he's impressed her somehow. "You're so cute." She says with a smile, before her eyes widen and she blushes.

Girls are so confusing, Peter thinks.

She tugs him into her room and closes the door behind them, and suddenly it's way hotter in here than it had been. Peter shrugs off his hoodie so he doesn't start sweating too much and Gwen seems happy to see that he's wearing a collared, button up shirt (thank you Aunt May).

"Your eye is better," she says after a minute. She's been pretty thorough with checking up on that over the past few weeks, and now that the cut that had been the epicentre had finally vanished, she seemed satisfied.

Peter smiles grimly. "I didn't really notice it when it was there," he said, putting on a brave space (because he would like to at least maintain the image of masculinity, thank you very much).

Gwen smiles at him, and she seems to take the awkward vibes he's giving out completely in her stride. They talk for a bit about their work at school and their friends (because Peter's gradually getting some of those, which is interesting). While they chat, she brushes his arm with her hand and he snatches the moment to brush her hair behind her ear. His hand is lingering on hers and she's looking at him with those wide green eyes when there's a knock on the door.

"Dinner's ready," a woman who Peter can only assume is Gwen's mother calls through the door.

When they go out Peter smiles and thanks Gwen's mother for having him, before gruffly shaving Gwen's dad's hand and letting Captain Stacy win the inevitable 'whose hand holds tighter' exchange.

The food is complicated—far more complicated than the spelling of the dish on google—and he does get a couple of giggles from Gwen two younger brothers—but then Gwen's leaning across his arm and helping him and holy _shit _his wrist is touching her boob.

He fights valiantly to stay calm, which is good because Captain Stacy is watching closely. And he has a gun.

But it goes without problem, and when dinner's over, and he and Gwen are excused, Peter can't help but feel a little proud of his performance tonight. Hopefully he hasn't been as awkward as he could have been, and he can actually talk in proper sentences around Gwen these days (hell, he's even managed to sound intelligent recently).

Still, there's time to dissect his behaviour tomorrow. Tonight, he needs to focus on keeping it up.

Gwen is smiling at him, for the first time looking a little worried as she rubs her own arm a bit. "I hope this wasn't weird, that I asked you tonight."

Peter assumes that it's his attitude that's made her ask and is quick to correct her, because obviously—he wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now.

"No, no." He says quickly. "I wouldn't be anywhere else."

He thinks that maybe it's too much but it appears that it was the right thing to say for Gwen, at least, because she leans forward a bit and pushes up on her toes, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

.

Two days later, Peter and Harry have gone to skate, and Gwen and a couple of her friends have followed them, because they've been hanging out at school. Harry's kind of preening because MJ's in the crowd, and Peter's trying a little too hard to look like Gwen's performance doesn't bother him.

He's not sure what's going on with Gwen. She's been smiling a lot at him, touching him more and hugging him when they part—but everything is cleared up that afternoon.

It's nothing embarrassing. In fact, it's out of the blue. The boys finish up and they decide to all head out to find some food—and Peter hangs back to do one more run and Gwen waits for him. He runs over to her, smiles and looking happy to see him even though she's been hanging out with him all day, and then she's kissing him.

Peter stumbles for a minute, not sure what to do and too shocked to really think about it, but he jumps out of it equally as fast. Then he's pulling her closer and kissing her as thoroughly and trying to convince himself that yes, this is really happening. He can pick up some catcalls from their friends but he doesn't really mind because he's kissing _Gwen Stacy_.

Even when they pull apart, and Peter's brain isn't really working properly and Gwen is smiling up at him with a smile brighter than he's ever seen, he manages to figure out that this is what he wanted. This is what it must be all about.

:

The spider sinks it's teeth in and Peter Parker's life changes forever.

:

**A/N: **Yes. I DID need to add that depressing final line. Because I like drama, and writing this broke my shipper heart. At least I know that Stonefield is alive and thriving.

(If they break up, I'll literally die. It was bad enough when Bilson/Brody ended. I won't be able to handle this).

Anyway, please review. I might write a second chapter but for the moment, I'll mark it as complete.


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